1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the determination of blood groups.
2. History of the Related Art
In this domain, semi-automatic apparatus for dispensing the products to be mixed, are known. They generally comprise a test-tube changer provided on its periphery with a certain number of notches and associated with a sampling probe for transferring the products contained in the test-tubes. In the notches are disposed the test-tubes containing either centrifuged blood from each of the patients whose group is to be determined, or reagents of different contents and of which the number may vary depending on the type of analyses effected. The probe firstly samples a quantity of centrifuged blood of a patient and distributes it along a line or column of cells in a micro-board, and this for each patient; then it dispenses a reagent according to the same process, and this for each reagent so as to obtain the result of the type of analyses sought.
When dispensing of the different blood samples and reagents is terminated, the micro-board is transported by hand into a centrifuge so as to induce the reaction.
The micro-board is then placed by hand on a micro-board reader in order to analyze the results and determine the blood group of each of the patients. For the search to be considered as valid, it must be recommenced a second time, but with different reagents so as to confirm the first analysis.
It will be readily understood that such a analyzer procedure is tedious and complicated when the number of patients is high, this possibly leading to an error in reading which may have grave consequences.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome these drawbacks, more particularly by limiting the human interventions in order to reduce the risks of errors.